Senai kizhangu kuzhambu, Elephant yam or karunai kizhangu added in a tangy delicious gravy prepared for rice. We make it just like any other puli kuzhambu. This is very good for health. We call it senai kizhangu also.
I have already tried making senai kizhangu tawa fry, senai kizhangu chips and senai kizhangu curry. But haven’t made kuzhambu with this. So, made it today as I had a big half of this senai kizhangu. I have made pidi karunai kizhangu puli kuzhambu, but this one, I dont remember if I had made it before.
Make sure to use a little old (keep a week if too fresh, to reduce the itching effect in tongue/ hands. Senai kizhangu kuzhambu will taste balanced only when you salt, add spice accordingly. Otherwise you feel something missing.
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Senai kizhangu kuzhambu
Ingredients
- ¼ Senai kizhangu / elephant yam 1 cup sliced
- 1 tablespoon Tamarind packed
- 8 Small onion
- 8 Garlic flakes
- 1 tablespoon Sambar powder
- ½ teaspoon Red chilli powder optional (Kashmiri, mild)
- ¼ teaspoon Pepper powder
- ¼ teaspoon Turmeric
- ½ teaspoon Jaggery
- Salt – as needed
- Sesame oil – for topping
To temper
- 1 tablespoon Sesame oil
- ¼ teaspoon Fenugreek seeds
- ½ teaspoon Mustard
- 1 teaspoon Urad dal
- 1 teaspoon Toor dal
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 1 Curry leaves sprig
Instructions
- Soak tamarind in hot water for ½ hour and extract tamarind juice.
- Slice off the skin of the yam and cut into small, thin squares.
- Heat the tamarind extract with more water (total 4 & ½ cups) and add the chopped yam to it. Let it get cooked atleast half.
- Add sambar powder, turmeric, salt and red chilli powder (if adding) to the boiling kuzhambu.
- Mean while, heat a kadai with oil and temper with fenugreek, mustard, urad dal, toor dal, cumin seeds and curry leaves in order. Add roughly chopped onion and garlic to it and fry for 2 minutes in medium flame.
- Add it to the boiling kuzhambu. let it boil until the vegetable gets cooked properly and the volume reduces.
- Lastly add jaggery, pepper powder. Once thick, add sesame oil and switch off the stove.
Notes
- Yam takes time to cook, so slice thinly. Also make sure it gets cooked soft in the gravy.
- If you do not have sambar powder, you can use store bought (shakthi or aachi sambar powder).
- Adding red chilli powder gives good colour, but make sure to use mild in spice, bright in colour ones
- Jaggery, pepper powder adds flavour, you can skip it too.
- Make sure to balance the taste of tamarind, spice powder and salt.
Senai kizhangu kuzhambu step by step pictures:
- Soak tamarind in hot water for ½ hour and extract tamarind juice.
- Slice off the skin of the yam and cut into small, thin squares.
- Heat the tamarind extract with more water (total 4 & ½ cups) and add the chopped yam to it. Let it get cooked atleast half.
- Add sambar powder, turmeric, salt and red chilli powder (if adding) to the boiling kuzhambu.
- Mean while, heat a kadai with oil and temper with fenugreek, mustard, urad dal, toor dal, cumin seeds and curry leaves in order. Add roughly chopped onion and garlic to it and fry for 2 minutes in medium flame.
- Add it to the boiling kuzhambu. let it boil until the vegetable gets cooked properly and the volume reduces.
- Lastly add jaggery, pepper powder. Once thick, add sesame oil and switch off the stove.
Enjoy senai kizhangu kuzhambu with any mild kootu or poriyal. Thengai thogayal also goes well with this.
Wow . It tasted awesome. The flavour of cumin seeds garli n onions complimented the gravy. We all loved it. Thanks for sharing
Hi Raji…kuzhambu looks yum..it was very tempting in your insta post itself…just wanted to clarify – karunai kizhangu and senai kizhangu are different right? Senai kizhangu is what we call as elephant yam…hope i am right..
Luks great plz post badam chutney receipe
Sure 🙂
Thank you Jeyashri 🙂
We call that pidi karunai kizhangu Suba
Oh ok…Thank you Raji:)
Absolutely delicious! Thanks for the recipe.
Wow so yummy. I will love it. It's been so long years that I had yam.Just one question. Is there any tips to remove that itchiness of the yam? I bought one and I'm little afraid to make☺️
If you keep it for few days and as it becomes old, it will not be itchy. Also if tamarind is right, it wont be itchy.
Hi Raji….instead of yam , can I add arbi???
Sure, peel skin, shop and add.
Hello….today I tried this recipe…I cudnt get small onions and I made this with normal onions …but it was not tasting yummy…it was ok….but not yummy…is that bcz I dint use smal onions…
Normal onion also can be used. May be some other reason to do with balancing of taste.